No Audio Device!!

Computer Forum Sound Cards and Speakers
1

For the last month or so I have not been able to use my sound card. It all started when I was using a video capturing device when the computer froze and crashed. For a while I could not load Windows untill in safe mode I uninstalled the Driver and removed the card.
I was then able to get to Windows but had problems with the sound card and also the DVD-r and CD-R. I fixed the DVD-R and CD-R drivers and they work fine but the Audio/Sound Card still doesn’t work. I’ve tried 6 different drivers from the Motherboard company and also the actual card site.
Still no luck. So then it seems that the Driver works but the Sounds says that there is no audio drive found. Also the IRQ has a conflict with another device. I then tried another Sound card to see if it worked and same problem. So then I tried different PCI slots and nothing. Then I even tried updating the Bios and nothing.
I have a PC Chips M848A 2.1
A/C 97 Onboard Sound Card
Conflicted with Adaptec’s Video Capturing Card

Please help me, it seems so hopeless because nothing works. Thanks

2

Are all the volume switches turned up; Master, Wave, CD, Line?

Right click the speaker icon in the system tray and click ‘adjust audio properties’. The click the ‘audio tab’, and make sure your sound card is listed as the preffered device

NB: Modern PCI devices can share the same IRQ, so I don’t think this is your problem

3

I’m not able to get to the volume control because it says that there is no mixer. In the Sounds and audio devices their is no device shown butin the hardware part it shows that the sound card is there and working properly. What could I do to solve this problem?

4

Just to confirm, you have an onboard sound chip and you are also using a PCI sound card?

5

Right I have both but because the onboard stoped working I thought that it could be not working so I tried a sound card. I uninstalled the onboard driver and also in bios disabled the onboard card to try the new Audio card. Both have the same problem of working properly but nothing shows on the Sounds and audio devices. Thanks for responding. I have no clue what to try next. Please help.

6

I remember something from the sony rootkit article about device drivers being ‘leveled’

ie.

windows <> video & sound capture driver <> sound card driver <> sound card

and that when the guy removed the rootkit, his cd drive stopped working becoz the rootkit driver that had placed itself between windows and the dvd drive hadnt been removed.

I cant remember how he fixed it (other than it was a registry change) so unless anybody else can supply more info, i would suggest you re-install windows (make sure you backup documents etc first tho).

ps, have you tried re-installing the drivers (if its onboard sound, they will be on the disk that came with the system / motherboard)

7

I’m thinking that it could be something with the registries because when i was looking around on the windows support their were alot of problems in which the forums said to check a regestry key. I didn’t find any problem simmilar to mine but did look around in the regestry. Does anyone know of a place where it explains more about the regestry keys and how to fix them?
Thanks for replying and also I already tried many time from different internet sites to re-install the driver. Nothing worked. Please help

PS. I don’t really want to re-install Windows as you know that will cause more problems than solve.

8

Whats the current state of your computer?

What sound card are you using at the moment, on-board or PCI?

Whats the make and model of your on-board and PCI sound cards?

What drivers are you using, Microsoft or your manufacturers?

How do you uninstall your drivers, from device manager or the add/remove programs applet?

What is your Adaptec Video Capturing Card? What does it do? Did it come with your computer? Is it onboard or PCI?

Once I have this information, I can form a plan for you :slight_smile:

9

My computer is working fine, no problems. At this moment i’m using the sound card not the onboard audio card. Both have the same problem though. The Onboard model is A/C 97 sound card for the PC Chips M848A v2.1 Motherboard. The one I’m using now is a Prowler 4.1 DSP MadDog 8738. I’ve used drivers from all over the place; from the manufacture, from windows, from the motherboard site…Nothing works. I uninstall the drivres from both the Device manager and the add remove programs because sometimes the driver comes together with a program so I get ride of both through the add/remove programs or if not through the Device Manager. The Adaptec Card is a video card that captures video coming from other sources ie. vcr/DVD/TV. I was using this card when everything went crazy. It was a Adaptec AVC-2010 PCI card. Thanks for replying. Hope to hear your plan.

10

Sorry, I forgot to ask you:

Which sound card is your preffered device? Which one do you want to use at the end of the day?

11

Really It doesn’t matter to me. I think using the onboard card would be better because I could return the other card. I’m thinking though that fixxing the problem will let both cards work. Thanks for repying.

12

Please follow this exactly to insure a reliable removal, installation and configuration of your computer! :slight_smile:

You will need to download and install CCleaner available at www.ccleaner.com . Just install the program for now, don’t run it yet!

Step 1: Uninstallation and removal of Adaptec Card.
The first step is to remove the Adaptec card. You should do this via the add/remove programs applet in the control panel. Remove any referring drivers and software. Do not remove the drivers from Device Manager unless there is no uninstall in the add/remove box.

After the uninstallation is complete, shut down your computer and remove the card from the PCI slot.

Reboot your computer and browse to the Program Files folder. Delete the Adaptec folder (if present) and any refering folder for that card.

Now you need to enter the registry to remove any obsolete entries. Click Start > Run > Type regedit > press enter.

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERS > SOFTWARE > Remove anything refering to Adaptec PCI card

Next go HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Once again, remove the adaptec folder (if present) or anything refering to your card

Go to HKEY_USERS > S-1-5-21-910899857-1996886089-926709054-1554 (NORMALLY SECOND FROM LAST KEY) > SOFTWARE > Once again, remove the adaptec folder (if present) or anything refering to your card

Close the registry editor.

Open up CCleaner and click registry cleaner on the left hand side. Run the scan and remove all the errors it finds.

Step 2: Remove the PCI Sound Card
You should do exactly what you did in Step 1:

-Remove all software and drivers from the add/remove programs applet refering to your sound card
-Restart your computer and remove the sound card from the PCI slot
-Reboot your computer and remove the Prowler folder (if present) and all folders in Program Files which refer to your device (Prowler 4.1 DSP MadDog 8738)
-Enter the registry and follow the same structure as before
-Run CCleaner and run the registry cleaner.

Step 3: Removing and reinstalling the onboard AC’97

You need to restart you computer and enter the CMOS setup. Make sure your onboard sound card is enabled, then boot into Windows.
Windows might say ‘new hardware detected’. Let Windows install it own drivers and reboot if nescassary.

Let me know if this works without your adaptec card. If it does work, then we can tackle your Adaptec card next! :slight_smile:

13

This is a great plan but i’m not sure where is CCleaners is? I was looking and their is nothing about the adaptec in the regestry or on the computer(that I can see) so I just need to get that CCleaners and finish your halp plan. Thanks.

14

Sorry nevermind I see the link. I didn’t see it in my hotmail file.

15

OK I tried it all but still same problem. Still no Audio device in the system Sounds and audio Devices. What could it be? I really don’t understand enogh about drivers and audio specs to fix this. Thanks for helping.

16

Did you reinstall your onboard sound card drivers?

Prehaps you should try this driver for your AC’97:

ftp://61.56.86.122/pc/ac97/alc650/WDM_A381.exe

17

Check whether the “Windows Audio” Service is running (Services in Administrative tools). If this service is disabled no Soundcard will work independent from a working driver installation.